


Alea and the Courts

by Blueraven (min96)



Series: Child of the Fae [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:38:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5838301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/min96/pseuds/Blueraven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Companion story to Fea Child following Alea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alea and the Courts

**_Gobbledegook_ **

_Elvish_

**Gaelic**

Latin (translation)

~Parsletongue~

 

Alea stood leaning against Ailluin as Hadrian disappeared around the bend and out of sight. The red steam engine speeding up and pulling the last carriage out of sight and her child away from her. With a sigh she turned to smile at the Grangers. “It was wonderful meeting you, here.” Alea handed the address for her Gringots post box. “If you have any questions or concerns please write.” Susan smiled and accepted the note. Folding it into her purse she said her goodbyes and looked to her husband.

“It’s good to know Hermione has a friend.” The man smiles at Alea. “Even if he may be stranger than the other students.” Alea laughed, pleased but surprised by the man’s wit.

“Hadrian is probably a little strange, I don’t think I played Human all too well when he was still impressionable.” Mark grins back and nods his goodbyes to Alea and her brothers before glancing at the retreating back of the boy who had joined Hermione and Hadrian’s grandmother. She had left as soon as the train had begun to move. Alea turned to her brothers. “ _One more errand.”_ The Elves glanced at each other and then back at their sister.

“ _Where?”_ Alea grins.

” _Hogwarts, I need to visit an old friend.”_

Alea steps out of the Forest and looks up at the imposing castle. Ailluin and Elnaril step up beside her. “Minnie ended up here?” The pair had dragged an explanation out of Alea as they walked back to the Park.

“She’s Deputy Headmistress to Dumbledore.” The Elves grimace.

“Not sure I like being so close to the man.” Ailluin was sneering. Alea rolled her eyes and headed towards the castle.

“She should be in her office doing last minuet preparation for the sorting.” Her brothers followed her into the castle and up the main stairs, lost after the first few twisting turns. Alea stops at a door with a brass plaque stating Minnie’s name and roles in the school. Alea knocks, waiting for the rather abrupt reply before stepping into the room.

“Alea?!” Minerva drops her quill and is half out of her chair before the tree make it into the room.

“I thought you deserved an explanation.” Alea smiles guiltily at the woman she had run through the woods with when she was a teenager.

“Well come in, sit down, it’s good to see you Ailluin, Elnaril.” The woman nods to the two brothers and waves for the three to sit, folding herself back into her chair and glaring down her glasses at her childhood friend who looked at that moment like one of her older students, gearing up for an embarrassing confession.

“Well, when I visited, ten years ago, you mentioned Lilly Potter shared my eyes, and I had been asked by Elnaril to check in on his children so I thought that the two might be related.” Minerva blinks. Glancing at the younger of her friend’s brothers, the elf looked slightly confused, Alea must not have shared this bit of the story with him. “It took me a while to find them, the records weren’t all in paper and learning to use a computer took a while.” A sheepish look. “So when I tracked the last of them down I found myself in Surry.” Minerva breathed in sharply. “You were right by the way, she does have my eyes, so does Hadrian.” Minerva frowned but Alea held up a hand to forestall comment. “I knocked and was invented in by a rather large man who I followed into the kitchen to find a family of three settling into breakfast and a young boy cleaning pans larger than his head. I asked if she remembered Elnaril and when I received a positive reply was promptly dismissed, however the man suggested I take the boy he called the freak.” Minerva straitened, hissing. Elnaril and Ailluin were both glaring at the floor. “I took him to Gringots and adopted him, changing his name to Hadrian Iacobus Le Fey and then took him home, I raised him for seven years and he is now my son.” Alea glared at Minerva. “When a Rubeus Hagrid turned up looking for Harry Potter I was understandably upset. I know the children’s names are read as they are sorted, you told me of your own sorting Minnie, when you wavered over being a true Gryffindor. I want his name to be read out Hadrian Le Fey not Harry Potter, he wasn’t raised by Lilly and James, he has enough of a reminder of their love in the blood protection given to him by his mother, in his looks and the rituals I taught him for Samhain. He is no longer Harry Potter Minnie, don’t call him by that name.” Minerva sighs and reaches for a scroll sitting on her desk, passing it over she looks at Alea sternly. Alea unrolls the scroll, spotting her sons name written in elvish letters rather than the English the others are. Alea smiles. Stealing Minerva’s quill she scrawls Le Fey, Hadrian under the runes before handing both back. “Thank you Minnie.”

“Thank you for telling me the full story.” Minerva glares at her friend but Alea sees the smile in her eyes. “Now let me get back to my work.” Alea laughs and leans over the desk to kiss Minerva’s cheek before almost skipping from the room. Ailluin and Elnaril follow, both bowing to Minerva with smiles before leaving the room.

“Are we ready to leave now?” Ailluin sighs to Alea who laughs back.

“I still need to get my bags, but then yes, it’s time I faced father isn’t it?” The brothers wince in sympathy. The three slip from the castle, nodding to the stone guards at the door before disappearing in the forest.

Slipping out of the woods Alea trod to the front door of the cottage she had spent the last eight years living in. With a sigh she bypassed the kitchen and moved into her room. Ignoring the slightly open door to Hadrian’s she packed the dresses she had had made for her return to Court and tossed her bag over one shoulder. Finding Ailluin and Elnaril in the kitchen she dropped her bag before opening the cool box and frowning at the food within. “What’s wrong?” Alea glanced at Elnaril.

“Do I use a preservation rune or through it out?” Elnaril frowned.

“Are you planning on spending Yule here?” Alea shrugs.

“If father doesn’t demand I bring Hadrian to the Court.” Ailluin sighs.

“If he does you can stop by here on the way, state you need to collect some of Hadrian’s things.” Alea smiled at her eldest brother and pulled out a carving tool to begin to carve the needed runes. Remembering as she was finishing the last rune she pulled out her new wand, startled by the gasps of Ailluin and Elnaril she turned before casting any charms. “When?” Alea blinks before realising she hadn’t told them she had gotten a wand along with Hadrian.

“When I took Hadrian to get his I found a match.” Alea turned to cast the charms and looked in the dry foods cupboard.

“What is it?” Ailluin was frowning slightly but Elnaril just seemed happy.

“Beach, Cherry and Dragon Heartstring.” Alea cast a second charm on the cupboard and turned to the sink. Smiling at the fact that Hadrian had done them before they left. She hadn’t ever rid him of all his habits from the Dursleys, a willingness to help around the house was good as long as it was healthy.

“Dragon?” Alea rolled her eyes as Ailluin’s frown deepened.

“Yes, are we done?” Alea glanced one last time around the kitchen.

“Ready to go?” Ailluin stood and lifted Alea’s bags while Elnaril slipped around the kitchen bench to take her hand. Alea sighed but let him pull her from the house and back to the edge of the woods. Neither of her brothers glanced back but Alea couldn’t help herself. Glancing back at the house she had raised Hadrian in made her chest tighten. Elnaril stepped into the forest pathway, pulling Alea away from her home and back to the Seelie Court.

The entry to the Seelie Court, unlike the Unseelie was an archway, instead of armoured guards Elves dressed in the Seelie gold and blue lazed around the courtyard just inside the arch, and while Alea knew they were armed with swords, knifes, and other weapons. If you weren’t a member of the court you would be stooped and offered directions, asked about your purpose and if warranted escorted to your destination. As Elnaril pulled Alea through into the courtyard a few of the guards stood, smiles were directed at Alea, welcomes called out to her and her brothers. One of the lower court members stationed in the courtyard to run messages left at a sprint to bring the news of their arrival to the throne. “ _Come on, Father wanted us to bring you strait to the family rooms.”_ Alea winced. She knew she would be in trouble for spending so long away from court without either telling her father or explaining her reasons, but to be brought strait to the family rooms meant she was not only in trouble but Theodred was upset enough to disregard how the Court would see his actions.

“ _How bad is it?”_ She glanced at Elnaril, as far as she knew he still lived with their parents while Ailluin had moved out when he began courting Rubrea.

“ _If you hadn’t asked mother to visit he would have had you dragged back years ago.”_ Ailluin glared at her. _“She told him you were staying in the cottage.”_ A shrug. _“The goblins passed your messages along too, which helped.”_ Alea smiled.

” _I know, I got yours too.”_ Ailluin smiled. They left the courtyard and entered the entry way, they round room made their footsteps echo on the white marble floor. The many archways led to different parts of the court, the central largest led into the throne room, standing in the centre was a tall blond man, hair turning white with age at his temples the pale gold of his hair shone under the gold crown resting on his forehead. The three bowed slightly, standing strait once more when he waved his hand. Green eyes the same shade as the three siblings crinkled at the sides as he smiled.

_“It is good to see you well Alea, I wanted to see you for myself before my brother shut you away.”_ Alea ducked her head.

“ _It is good to be back Uncle.”_ The correct address prompted by the lack of the royal we. “ _I have missed my family.”_ It was the most polite response and the Seelie king recognised the meaning. He laughed, the sound ringing through the hall, and while not an uncommon sound it always brought smiles to those around him, Alea’s uncle had earned his place as heir above his older brother, Alea’s own father had been born after his father stepped down in favour of his second son. A woman with hair the colour of gold stepped up next to the King. Her own crown was made of leaves and berries. The informal crown to her husband’s formal one. The Queen must have skipped the formal court today. Alea and her brothers bowed slightly to the new arrival, but stood without leave to, as relatives of the King they could stand in front of her without leave. Alea had always liked the kind woman, her uncle had married for love and it showed in the royal pair.

“ _It is good to see you Alea, it had been too long, you must join us for dinner.”_ Alea grinned. Her father had to let her out with an invitation from the Queen.

“ _I would be honoured Your Highness.”_ Formal address in public, no matter what she called the woman in private.

“ _If you would excuse us, Father wants Alea settled before she re-enters the court.”_ King Rydel and Queen Imra smile, nodding to Ailluin who bows in return. Alea bows with Elnaril, standing to watch Rydel and Imra turn away before leaving themselves.

Ailluin leads them down a pathway to the left of the throne room. The Royal Rooms were to the right and as close as their family was to the Royals of the Fae Theodred had chosen to take rooms with his wife’s family in the Nobel wing. Alea had grown up running between the two as a young child before exploring the woods as she grew eventually reaching her maturity and joining the court before leaving again. Deciding she was not at home among the shining crowd like the rest of her family. As good as she was at politics she did not enjoy acting as the perfect Seelie Lady, she felt more at home among the Wild Fae and Humans then in her own Court. As they approached the family rooms Alea fell back behind Elnaril, his grip on her hand tightening. Ailluin opened the door standing to one side as Elnaril almost dragged Alea through. Alea stood just behind Elnaril as Ailluin closed the door and dropped Alea’s bags next to the door he walked forwards to greet Rubrea and the toddler in her arms. Theodred and Alavara stood in the centre of the room, Theodred was frowning, his arms crossed over his chest. Alavara was smiling at her only daughter, Alea smiled back but refused to move from behind Elnaril and face her father without the support of her brother. Alea scowled at his back as Elnaril moves to great Rubrea as well, sweeping the toddler up into his own arms, receiving cries of joy in return. He turned to face Alea again.

“ _Alea, meet your nephew Anlyth. Anlyth, meet your Aunt Alea.”_ The little boy looked at Alea with his mother’s blue eyes.

“ _’Lea”_ Anlyth held out his hands to be held and Alea smiled. Having left before he was born she regrated that this was their first meeting.

“ _Hello little one.”_ Alea took her nephew from Elnaril and smiled at Anlyth’s parents. “ _He’s perfect.”_ Rubrea softened. Her husband loved his sister, no matter that she had left at a time when family should stay close, that she hadn’t been there when Anlyth was born. Rubrea had felt almost like the young Elf was rejecting her, but now seeing the instant love in the girls eyes she remembered how unhappy Court life had made her sister in law and how much brighter her eyes were now that she had spent time away.

“ _It is good to see you sister.”_ Rubrea smiled at the younger woman. _“You look happier.”_ Alea smiled back.

“ _I am.”_ Theodred cleared his throat. With a sigh Rubrea took Anlyth from Alea and bowed to her father in law.

“ _It is time for my son to eat.”_ She smiled at her husband and left the family alone. She had no place in this discussion.

“ _Father I…”_ Alea stopped when her father’s eyes narrowed.

“ _You were gone too long.”_ Alea opened her mouth only to snap it closed at her father’s raised hand. “ _You worried your mother and I, you put yourself at risk being away so long at such a young age, while I thank the Mother that you thought to send word through the goblins of your wellbeing you should never have left. I will let you explain what kept you from your home before I give you your punishment.”_ Alea bowed her head.

_“May I say something first?”_ Theodred turned to Elnaril. With a raised eyebrow he nodded. _“Alea has done something that I am thankful for. When I found out she was leaving I asked her to check in on my line, it was that the caused her delay in returning.”_ Elnaril bowed his head to his father and stepped back.

“ _Then I will take that into account.”_ Theodred turned back to Alea.

“ _It took a few years to find the last of Elnaril’s line and when I did I found a Human family raising a Cunning One.”_ Alavara gasped. “ _They were starving him, using him as a slave, I took him away and adopted him. When I took him to the goblins they found a parasite feeding off his magic, when they could not remove it I asked mother to visit and she managed to do so, but I didn’t tell her who he was, or that I had taken him as my own.”_ Alavara was scowling at her daughter’s lies and Theodred was still frowning. “ _I stayed away for his safety, raised him among humans and wild Fae and sent word I would return when I knew he was old enough to not be seduced by the Court. He was invited to attend Hogwarts and accepted so I sent word that I would come after he had left. Ailluin and Elnaril arrived as we were leaving for the station.”_ Alea glanced up at her parents.

“ _Why did you not tell us of the boy?”_ Theodred was still displeased with her actions, but less upset about the time she had spent away, for if she had been raising a child she would have stayed away from danger.

“ _I wanted to raise him as human, not Fae, so I kept him from either Court and only took him to the Meeting Place to show him my people.”_ Theodred sighed.

_“For lying to your family you will be restricted to your rooms until the gathering.”_ Alea winced _. “For leaving you will remain at Court for the next decade.”_ Alea opened her mouth the protest _. “However you will be allowed to spend the summers with your ward, he shall join us at Court for the winter.”_ Alea relaxes. She would be able to see Hadrian. Then she winces, he would have to spend the winter break at the Seelie Court, oh that was not good.

“ _Father, Alea has been invited to eat with Uncle Rydel and Queen Imra tonight.”_ Ailluin steps forwards and Alea sighs in relief. At least she would escape the blame for that.

Theodred smiles. _“Then she will join us, Brother and I were planning to dine in private tonight to discuss the gathering.”_ Alea’s shoulders slump once more, damn. Alavara steps forwards.

“ _Do you have any gowns?”_ Alea smirks, waving to her bag.

_“I visited the Tailor.”_ Alavara smiles and strides to the bag, picking it up she waves Alea into her rooms.

” _Then we had best make you ready, we only have a few hours now.”_ Alea groans but follows her mother down the hall. She hadn’t missed Court, not at all. Then she smiled. But it was good to see her family. She would have to write to Hadrian after dinner.

 

* * *

 

 

Alea smiled as she read Hadrian’s letter as he wrote it, pulling out a quill she set to write as he finished. Mentioning her arrival, punishment and dinner with Uncle Ryden Alea put the quill away and stood to leave her rooms. She had been told Rubrea would be bringing Anlyth with her when she and Ailluin came to break their fast with the family. She was looking forward to seeing the child again. Having grown up the only child in the Court she was looking forward to playing with a High Elf child and plying the games others had played with her with her nephew. Children were a rarity already and to have two born to one family in just over a century was a gift, especially in these times.

Magic had begun to fade in the past centuries and the loss of darker magics since her childhood had damaged the balance. Alea shook her head as she left her rooms, this was not the time for such thoughts. She would have time to discuss magic with her father in the weeks she was restricted to her rooms. A sigh, two months kept to her rooms away from the forest. She was almost looking forward to the politics of the Gathering.


End file.
